Ground power supply device, moving body, and abnormality determination device

This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-097335 filed on Jun. 16, 2022 incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates to ground power supply devices, moving bodies, and abnormality determination devices.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-167898 (JP 2010-167898 A) discloses, as a conventional contactless power supply system, a system configured to contactlessly supply electric power from a power transmission device installed in a road to a power reception device mounted on a vehicle.

When an abnormality occurs in power transfer between a power transmission device and a power reception device in a contactless power supply system, it is necessary to determine whether the cause of the abnormality lies in the power transmission device or in the power reception device.

The present disclosure provides a technique of, when an abnormality related to power transfer occurs between a power transmission device and a power reception device, determining whether the cause of the abnormality lies in the power transmission device or in the power reception device.

A first aspect of the present disclosure relates to a ground power supply device including a power transmission device, a ground side-communication device, and a power transmission control device. The power transmission device is configured to perform contactless power supply to a moving body including a power reception device. The ground-side communication device is configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the moving body. The power transmission control device is configured to count the number of times a power transfer abnormality has occurred between the power transmission device and the power reception device or the number of times an abnormality occurrence notification has been received, the abnormality occurrence notification being a notification that is sent from the moving body when the power transfer abnormality is detected in the moving body. The power transmission control device is configured to determine that there is an abnormality in the power transmission device when the number of times the power transfer abnormality has occurred or the number of times the abnormality occurrence notification has been received becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

In the ground power supply device of the first aspect, the power transmission control device may be configured as follows. The power transmission control device may be configured to: (i) determine whether the power transfer abnormality has occurred; (ii) when the power transfer abnormality has occurred, send the abnormality occurrence notification to the moving body equipped with the power reception device involved in the power transfer abnormality that has occurred with the power transmission device; and (iii) when a moving body-side abnormality notification is received from the moving body to which the abnormality occurrence notification has been sent, decrement the counted number of times the power transfer abnormality has occurred, the moving body-side abnormality notification being a notification that there is an abnormality in the power reception device mounted on the moving body.

In the ground power supply device of the first aspect, the power transmission control device may be configured to decrement the counted number of times the abnormality occurrence notification has been received, when a moving body-side abnormality notification is received from the moving body that has sent the abnormality occurrence notification, the moving body-side abnormality notification being a notification that there is an abnormality in the power reception device mounted on the moving body.

A second aspect of the present disclosure relates to a moving body including a power reception device, a moving body-side communication device, and a power reception control device. The power reception device is configured to receive contactless power supply from a power transmission device of a ground power supply device. The moving body-side communication device is configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the ground power supply device. The power reception control device is configured to count the number of times a power transfer abnormality has occurred between the power transmission device and the power reception device or the number of times an abnormality occurrence notification has been received, the abnormality occurrence notification being a notification that is sent from the ground power supply device when the power transfer abnormality is detected in the ground power supply device. The power reception control device is configured to determine that there is an abnormality in the power reception device when the number of times the power transfer abnormality has occurred or the number of times the abnormality occurrence notification has been received becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

In the moving body of the second aspect, the power reception control device may be configured as follows. The power reception control device may be configured to: (i) determine whether the power transfer abnormality has occurred; (ii) when the power transfer abnormality has occurred, send the abnormality occurrence notification to the ground power supply device including the power transmission device involved in the power transfer abnormality that has occurred with the power reception device; and (iii) when a ground-side abnormality notification is received from the ground power supply device to which the abnormality occurrence notification has been sent, decrement the counted number of times the power transfer abnormality has occurred, the ground-side abnormality notification being a notification that there is an abnormality in the power transmission device of the ground power supply device.

In the moving body of the second aspect, the power reception control device may be configured to decrement the counted number of times the abnormality occurrence notification has been received, when a ground-side abnormality notification is received from the ground power supply device that has sent the abnormality occurrence notification, the ground-side abnormality notification being a notification that there is an abnormality in the power transmission device of the ground power supply device.

A third aspect of the present disclosure relates to an abnormality determination device in a power transmission device of a contactless power supply system. The abnormality determination device is configured to: (i) count the number of times an abnormality related to power transfer has occurred between the power transmission device and a power reception device configured to contactlessly receive electric power transmitted from the power transmission device or the number of times a notification that the power transfer abnormality related to power transfer has occurred has been received from outside; and (ii) determine that there is an abnormality in the power transmission device when the counted number of times becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

A fourth aspect of the present disclosure relates to an abnormality determination method for a power transmission device of a contactless power supply system. The abnormality determination method for the power transmission device includes: (i) counting the number of times a power transfer abnormality has occurred between the power transmission device and a power reception device configured to contactlessly receive electric power transmitted from the power transmission device or the number of times a notification that the power transfer abnormality related to power transfer has occurred has been received from outside; and (ii) determining that there is an abnormality in the power transmission device when the counted number of times becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

A fifth aspect of the present disclosure relates to an abnormality determination device in a power reception device of a contactless power supply system. The power reception determination device is configured to: (i) count the number of times an abnormality related to power transfer has occurred between the power reception device and a power transmission device configured to contactlessly transmit electric power to the power reception device or the number of times a notification that the abnormality related to power transfer has occurred has been received from outside; and (ii) determine that there is an abnormality in the power reception device when the counted number of times becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

A sixth aspect of the present disclosure relates to an abnormality determination method for a power reception device of a contactless power supply system. The abnormality determination method for the power reception device includes: (i) counting the number of times a power transfer abnormality has occurred between the power reception device and a power transmission device configured to contactlessly transmit electric power to the power reception device or the number of times a notification that the power transfer abnormality related to power transfer has occurred has been received from outside; and (ii) determining that there is an abnormality in the power reception device when the counted number of times becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

According to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth aspects of the present disclosure, when an abnormality related to power transfer occurs between the power transmission device and the power reception device, whether the cause of the abnormality lies in the power transmission device or in the power reception device can be determined based on the number of times the power transfer abnormality has occurred or the number of times the notification that the abnormality has occurred has been received from the outside.

Embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, like constituent elements are denoted by like reference numerals.

First, a first embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below.is a schematic configuration diagram of a contactless power supply systemaccording to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

The contactless power supply systemincludes a server, ground power supply devices, and a vehiclethat is an example of the moving body of the present disclosure. The contactless power supply systemis configured to contactlessly supply electric power from the ground power supply deviceto the vehicleby contactless power transfer using various transfer methods such as, for example, magnetic field coupling (electromagnetic induction), electric field coupling, magnetic resonance coupling (magnetic resonance), and electric resonance coupling (electric resonance).shows an example in which the ground power supply devicesare set at predetermined intervals in a row along a road as an installation example of the ground power supply devices.

As shown in, the serverincludes a server communication unit, a server storage unit, and a server processing unit.

The server communication unitincludes a communication interface circuit for connecting the serverto a network, and is configured to communicate with the ground power supply devicesand the vehiclevia the network.

The server storage unitincludes a storage medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), an optical recording medium, and a semiconductor memory, and stores various computer programs, data, etc. to be used for processing in the server processing unit.

The server processing unitincludes a processor having one or more central processing units (CPUs) and their peripheral circuits. The server processing unitperforms various processes based on the various computer programs stored in the server storage unit. For example, when the server processing unitreceives a signal requesting to use the contactless power supply systemfrom the vehicle, the server processing unitchecks whether the vehicleis authorized to use the contactless power supply system. When the authorization is confirmed, the server processing unittransmits and receives various kinds of information to and from the vehicleand the ground power supply devicesso that the vehiclecan receive power supply from the ground power supply devices. Since such transmission and reception of the various kinds of information is not the main part of the present disclosure, description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the configurations of those portions of the ground power supply deviceand vehiclethat are related to contactless power supply according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to.

shows an example of the configuration of the ground power supply deviceaccording to the first embodiment.

As shown in, the ground power supply deviceincludes a power supply, a power transmission device, a ground-side communication device, and a power transmission control device. The power transmission deviceand the ground-side communication deviceare connected to the power transmission control devicevia an internal networkof the ground power supply deviceconforming to a standard such as a Controller Area Network (CAN). Althoughshows an example in which the ground power supply deviceincludes one power transmission device, the ground power supply devicemay include a plurality of power transmission devices.

The power supplysupplies electric power to the power transmission device. The power supplyis, for example, a commercial alternating current (AC) power supply that supplies single phase AC power. The power supplymay be other AC power supply that supplies three phase AC power, or may be a direct current (DC) power supply such as a fuel cell.

The power transmission deviceis a device for transferring electric power supplied from the power supplyto the vehicle, and includes a power transmission-side resonatorand a power transmission circuit.

The power transmission-side resonatoris a resonant circuit including a power transmission coil, and is configured to resonate at a predetermined resonant frequency f. In the first embodiment, the resonant frequency fis set to 85 (kHz) defined by the SAE TIR J2954 standard as the frequency band for contactless power transfer. However, the resonant frequency fis not limited to this.

As will be described later with reference to, the vehicleis provided with a power reception-side resonator(see) corresponding to the power transmission-side resonator. The power reception-side resonatoris a resonant circuit including a power reception coil, and is configured to resonate at the same resonant frequency fas the power transmission-side resonator. By causing the power transmission-side resonatorto resonate, the power transmission coil of the power transmission-side resonatorand the power reception coil of the power reception-side resonatorthat are spaced apart are magnetically coupled, so that electric power is contactlessly transferred from the power transmission deviceto a power reception device.

The power transmission circuitis an electric circuit that includes a rectifier and an inverter. The power transmission circuitis configured to be controlled by the power transmission control deviceto convert AC power supplied from the power supplyto DC power by the rectifier, convert by the inverter this DC power to desired AC power that can cause the power transmission-side resonatorto resonate, and supply this AC power to the power transmission-side resonator. The configuration of the power transmission circuitis not limited to this configuration, and may be changed as appropriate according to the type of the power supplyetc.

The power transmission circuitis provided with a power transmission sensorfor detecting whether electric power is being transmitted normally (in other words, whether contactless power supply is being performed normally). The power transmission sensorincludes, for example, a power transmission-side current sensor that detects a current Iflowing through the power transmission-side resonator(also referred to as “power transmission-side current”), and a power transmission-side voltage sensor that detects a voltage Vto be applied to the power transmission-side resonator(also referred to as “power transmission-side voltage”). A detection signal from the power transmission sensoris input to the power transmission control device.

The ground-side communication deviceincludes an antenna and a signal processing circuit that performs various processes related to wireless communication such as modulation and demodulation of radio signals. The ground-side communication deviceis configured to communicate with the external serverand the vehicle. The ground-side communication deviceand the vehiclecan communicate with each other either directly or indirectly via the server. When the ground-side communication devicereceives a radio signal from the outside, it transfers the radio signal to the power transmission control device. When a signal to be transmitted to the outside is transferred from the power transmission control deviceto the ground-side communication device, the ground-side communication devicegenerates a radio signal including this signal and transmits the radio signal to the outside.

The power transmission control deviceincludes a communication interface, a storage unit, and a power transmission processing unit.

The communication interfaceis a communication interface circuit for connecting the power transmission control deviceto the internal networkof the ground power supply device.

The storage unitincludes a storage medium such as an HDD, an SSD, an optical recording medium, and a semiconductor memory, and stores various computer programs, data, etc. to be used for processing in the power transmission processing unit.

The power transmission processing unitincludes a processor having one or more CPUs and their peripheral circuits. The power transmission processing unitperforms various processes based on the various computer programs stored in the storage unit. The processes that are performed by the power transmission processing unitand the power transmission control devicewill be described later with reference toetc.

shows an example of the configurations of those portions of the vehiclethat are related to contactless power supply according to the first embodiment.

As shown in, the vehicleincludes the power reception device, a vehicle-side communication devicethat is the moving body-side communication device of the present disclosure, and a power reception control device. The power reception deviceand the vehicle-side communication deviceare connected to the power reception control devicevia an in-vehicle networkconforming to a standard such as CAN. The power reception control devicecan be connected to other devices mounted on the vehicle(e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) device that detects the current position of the vehicle, etc.) as necessary, and can thus acquire various kinds of Information as necessary.

The power reception deviceincludes the power reception-side resonatorand a power reception circuit.

As described above, the power reception-side resonatoris a resonant circuit including a power reception coil, and is configured to resonate at the same resonant frequency fas the power transmission-side resonator.

The power reception circuitis an electric circuit that includes a rectifier and a direct current-to-direct current (DC-to-DC) converter. The power reception circuitis configured to be controlled by the power reception control deviceto convert AC power output from the power reception-side resonatorto DC power by the rectifier and supply this DC power to an electric loadvia the DC-to-DC converter. Examples of the electric loadinclude, but are not particularly limited to, a battery and an electric motor. In the first embodiment, the power reception circuitis connected to a battery that is the electric load.

The power reception circuitis provided with a power reception sensorfor detecting whether electric power is being received normally (in other words, whether contactless power supply is being performed normally). The power reception sensorincludes, for example, a power reception-side current sensor that detects an output current Iof the rectifier (also referred to as “power reception-side current”), and a power reception-side voltage sensor that detects an output voltage Vof the rectifier (also referred to as “power reception-side voltage”). A detection signal from the power reception sensoris input to the power reception control device.

The vehicle-side communication deviceincludes an antenna and a signal processing circuit that performs various processes related to wireless communication such as modulation and demodulation of radio signals. The vehicle-side communication deviceis configured to communicate with the external serverand the ground power supply device. The vehicle-side communication deviceand the ground power supply devicecan communicate with each other either directly or indirectly via the server. When the vehicle-side communication devicereceives a radio signal from the outside, it transfers the radio signal to the power reception control device. When a signal to be transmitted to the outside is transferred from the power reception control deviceto the vehicle-side communication device, the vehicle-side communication devicegenerates a radio signal including this signal and transmits the radio signal to the outside.

The power reception control deviceincludes a communication interface, a storage unit, and a power reception processing unit.

The communication interfaceis a communication interface circuit for connecting the power reception control deviceto the in-vehicle network.

The storage unitincludes a storage medium such as an HDD, an SSD, an optical recording medium, and a semiconductor memory, and stores various computer programs, data, etc. to be used for processing in the power reception processing unit.

The power reception processing unitincludes a processor having one or more CPUs and their peripheral circuits. The power reception processing unitperforms various processes based on the various computer programs stored in the storage unit. The processes that are performed by the power reception processing unitand the power reception control devicewill be described later with reference toetc.

When an abnormality related to power transfer (hereinafter referred to as “power transfer abnormality”), such as electric power not being able to be transmitted or received normally between the power transmission deviceand the power reception device, occurs in the contactless power supply system, it is necessary to determine whether the cause of the power transfer abnormality lies in the power transmission deviceor in the power reception device. If an abnormality of the power transmission deviceis left uncorrected, each vehiclewill not be able to receive power supply from the power transmission device. Therefore, a plurality of vehicleswill be affected. If an abnormality of the power reception deviceis left uncorrected, the vehicleequipped with the power reception devicewill not be able to receive power supply from the power transmission device. Therefore, traveling of the vehiclemay be adversely affected.

However, the power transmission deviceand the power reception deviceare physically separated from each other. Therefore, when a power transfer abnormality occurs, the ground power supply devicemay not be able to determine whether it cannot transmit electric power normally because there is an abnormality in the power transmission deviceof the ground power supply deviceor because there is an abnormality in the power reception deviceof the vehicle, and similarly, the vehiclemay not be able to determine whether it cannot receive electric power normally because there is an abnormality in the power transmission deviceof the ground power supply deviceor because there is an abnormality in the power reception deviceof the vehicle.